A New Leaf advances its mission of “Helping Families, Changing Lives” by providing meaningful opportunities to empower disadvantaged individuals and families, and to create a stronger and healthier community. A New Leaf’s 37 programs in the Phoenix Metro area address households’ immediate and longer-term needs through a continuum of care that promotes social and economic health and stability. Services include emergency shelter, supportive housing, domestic and sexual violence support, financial empowerment, behavioral and primary health care, foster care, early childhood education, and family support. With 52 years of experience providing social services to local communities, A New Leaf anticipates improving more than 25,000 lives this year through culturally responsive programming that cultivates equity in the community.

For 52 years, A New Leaf has faithfully worked in service to its mission of “Helping Families… Changing Lives.” Through a continuum of relevant and effective services, and in collaboration with other organizations and civic leaders, A New Leaf’s vision is to support the community’s needs and to create meaningful opportunities for change and long-term stability and well-being.

Source: Nonprofit submitted responses

Goal One: Demonstrate Service Impact on Community

Goal Type: Focus on core programs to achieve mission and scale back on programs not seen as core.

Goal Two: Build Organizational Capacity for Sustaining Growth

Goal Type: Invest in the capacity of our organization (financial, management, technical, etc.).

Goal Three: Strengthen Staff Capacity to Support Efficient and Effective Service Delivery

Goal Type: Invest in the capacity of our organization (financial, management, technical, etc.).

Describe an investment in leadership

In 2023, A New Leaf’s leadership team has worked with an experienced consultant to deliver Supervisor Training 101 for all newly hired and current supervisors and managers. Supervisor Training 201 has been implemented and the sessions began in October. The goal is to help leaders create teams of trust, collaboration, accountability, and teamwork including communication, relationships, and boundaries, moving from peer to leader, and creating a healthy, engaging work environment. The agency has continued the implementation of Microsoft Office 365 applications, the delivery of training of Microsoft 365 applications, and the implementation of the Apricot 360 Social Services Software system. The goal of these activities is to strengthen internal communication and collaboration, document management, project and task management, and data structure and reporting management.

This organization mobilizes for mission in the following ways:

• Strategic Partnerships

• Networks of Collective Impact Efforts

• Raising Awareness

What are this organization’s external mobilizaton efforts?

Collaborative partnerships, volunteer efforts, and community resources remain an essential component of A New Leaf’s uniquely comprehensive wrap-around services that are designed to address each family’s and individual challenges. A New Leaf recently joined the CommunityCares network of more than 250 health and social service organizations that send, receive, and track electronic referrals through a common Unite Us closed-loop technological platform. The CommunityCares initiative improves access to a variety of services to meet an individual’s unique needs, helps overcome barriers to care, addresses Social Determinants of Health, and increases health equity. A New Leaf’s experience as a service provider in the Phoenix Metro area has resulted in deep local and state-wide partnerships beyond CommunityCares, including all levels of government; local schools and colleges; faith-based partners, and other social service and advocacy organizations.

The organization is partnering with the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, one of Arizona’s largest foundations, to support A New Leaf’s human resources, IT, and philanthropic and marketing capacity building efforts. Capacity building will focus on strategies to improve service outcomes, promote career growth and strengthen recruitment, increase efficiencies through implementation of software systems, strengthen cybersecurity capabilities, and increase donor engagement to sustain programming. One important goal of the partnership with the Trust is to strengthen the agency’s employee acquisition, training, and retention in response to recurring staffing challenges that result in weakened capacity in the agency’s program delivery. The Phoenix Metro area is facing a homelessness crisis. News outlets report rising homelessness in our community, issues around the downtown encampment, and the challenges of finding solutions to this ever-growing problem. A New Leaf is proud to partner with the City of Phoenix on shelter and housing efforts to address unsheltered homelessness in our community. A temporary 100-room shelter operated by A New Leaf opened in October 2023 to provide housing for singles and singles with children. In addition, a broader collaboration among A New Leaf, the City, other social service providers, and private funders will provide housing navigation, rental and utility assistance for up to 12 months, plus support services for individuals and families transitioning out of shelter to help ensure their ongoing stability.